Minnesota linkspam
Jan. 23rd, 2026 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wongMostly to create some space in my head. But holy shit, Minnesotans, you are extraordinary and we see you. Across the fucking ocean, we see you.
( Cut for US politics, violence )
How To Help If You Are Outside Minnesota by Naomi Kritzer
( Cut for US politics, violence )
How To Help If You Are Outside Minnesota by Naomi Kritzer
Snowflake Challenge: day 10
Jan. 23rd, 2026 03:37 pmshewhostaples
Big Mood (Board)
CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).
I've never done a digital moodboard (have done physical collages, back in the day) and this sounded fun, if a little challenging to manage with limited laptop time. As I've been burbling about The Prisoner of Zenda quite a bit recently, I thought I'd stick with that. All the images came from Wikimedia Commons.
I can never make DW images play nicely, so I'm just sticking this under a cut and hoping for the best. I hope it doesn't come out too huge!
( Read more... )
A Reckoning of Swords 21-23
Jan. 23rd, 2026 08:42 amkallowayA bit of archiving, a lot of something. I realized that despite it being two and a half years since I started the new site, I hadn't moved any of my FFVII fic. Not a bit. I have now moved my two Crisis Core fics and will work on the rest sooner than later. But then again, I also had no Kingdom Hearts until I was nudged. (I think some of it is the sheer size of those categories? And knowing this is still a multi-year effort. Even if I manage five fics (or chapters thereof) a day for an entire year, that's only 1825 items, which is nothing compared to the ~2500-not-counting-chaptered-stuff on AO3 + all the original fic I couldn't post there because AO3 sucks and everything I've written since mid-2023. So, like, catching up is task for the bastard child of Hercules and Sisyphus.)
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of the everything about my 2003 NaNo novel, too. How I went to archive it, realized I'd always meant to finish editing and expanding it a bit, but actually re-write it - meant to do it last year and, uh, last year happened. Anyway, dead set on doing it this year! Except the main copy was on the website that's gone. Oh, well, surely it's on my journal! Nope! Okay, to the Wayback Machine! Nope! I dug out the old php files and dumped it into some private entries for my future use.
Main things to do with it:
- less padding smut
- remove friend's cameo character
- words we don't use anymore
- remove some of the real-world canons and substitute some fictional ones*
- tighten up the expies a bit
- yeah idek it just needs a lot and that's okay
*the main reason for this aside from unlimited plot potential with the fictional fandoms is the story is set in 2003 and had plenty of commentary on things like Guilty Gear which made sense in 2003 but are a little jarring in the Year of Our Dude 202X.
I don't know if it'll end up being 50k words still, or shorter or longer. My original thoughts on the story were that it was too short for NaNo, and it possibly was hence a lot of weird padding and things just being... weird.
I also have one KH fic and one FFVII fic that I didn't archive on AO3 for Reasons and I'll have to eventually make decisions with those, too...
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of the everything about my 2003 NaNo novel, too. How I went to archive it, realized I'd always meant to finish editing and expanding it a bit, but actually re-write it - meant to do it last year and, uh, last year happened. Anyway, dead set on doing it this year! Except the main copy was on the website that's gone. Oh, well, surely it's on my journal! Nope! Okay, to the Wayback Machine! Nope! I dug out the old php files and dumped it into some private entries for my future use.
Main things to do with it:
- less padding smut
- remove friend's cameo character
- words we don't use anymore
- remove some of the real-world canons and substitute some fictional ones*
- tighten up the expies a bit
- yeah idek it just needs a lot and that's okay
*the main reason for this aside from unlimited plot potential with the fictional fandoms is the story is set in 2003 and had plenty of commentary on things like Guilty Gear which made sense in 2003 but are a little jarring in the Year of Our Dude 202X.
I don't know if it'll end up being 50k words still, or shorter or longer. My original thoughts on the story were that it was too short for NaNo, and it possibly was hence a lot of weird padding and things just being... weird.
I also have one KH fic and one FFVII fic that I didn't archive on AO3 for Reasons and I'll have to eventually make decisions with those, too...
Thérèse Raquin - Émile Zola
Jan. 23rd, 2026 08:37 amtroisoiseauxFinished Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, a 1867 novel about ADULTERY and MURDER and AN ACCIDENTAL POLYCULE WITH A GHOST. That is: an unhappy young wife (Thérèse) and her lover (Laurent) conspire to murder her husband (Camille), and while they get away with making it look like an accident, once they marry, they're haunted by hallucinations of Camille, driving them both mad. I had to stop reading this over my lunch breaks because of all the lurid descriptions of corpses, real and hallucinated.
This made me think of Poe's horror and of the English and Irish "urban gothic" of the 1880s-90s (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula) and was in fact published almost exactly halfway between the two, which might be an "I've connected the two dots" situation? It is in many ways classically gothic, just set in downtown Paris rather than in some isolated castle: the opening description of the gloomy arcade where the Raquins keep their shop; the pseudo-incest* of Thérèse growing up as the foster sister of her first husband, literally sleeping in the same bed as children and being groomed to be his wife; the heavy foreshadowing of Camille's death via a clumsily painted portrait (by Laurent!) that gave him the greenish visage of a person who had met death by drowning; horribly lurid descriptions of corpses as Laurent visits the morgue every day to see whether Camille's body has been recovered yet; the HALLUCINATED CORPSE of Thérèse's dead husband LYING BETWEEN her and Laurent EVERY NIGHT; the repeated imagery/analogy of being buried alive, from Thérèse's unhappiness in both marriages to Madame Raquin, who learns of their crime but only after she becomes paralyzed and mute and literally can't tell anyone. There's also something vampire-adjacent in the detail that, as Laurent strangles and then drowns Camille, Camille bites him on the neck, and the wound/scar remains physically and psychologically irritating.
I was also struck by the Munchausen by proxy implications of Thérèse's backstory— I was brought up in the tepid damp room of an invalid. I slept in the same bed as Camille. . . . He would not take his physic unless I shared it with him. To please my aunt I was obliged to swallow a dose of every drug. Also, literally every character is selfish and manipulative: after the murder, Thérèse and Laurent basically gaslight everyone in their circle into convincing them (Thérèse and Laurent) to get married on the grounds that it would make life so much more comfortable for the rest of them (everyone else). (I did ultimately feel terrible for Madame Raquin, per the above, but before that, she was also a piece of work.) So, yeah, there's SO MUCH going on here, most of it psychological horror. At a certain point— Thérèse using her paralyzed, mute, completely helpless aunt/mother-in-law as a constant sounding board for how she's soooooo sorry she helped to kill this woman's son (narrator's voice: she was not, in fact, sorry) but she (Madame Raquin) forgives her (Thérèse), right???— I felt actively gross just reading it, and then Thérèse and Laurent continued to be so relentlessly awful that I looped back around to horrified fascination, and then I honestly laughed out loud when they each decide to kill the other at the same time. Like, she literally whips around with a knife to find him pouring poison into her glass. Come on, guys. To paraphraseosprey_archer's review, they may not ""repent"" of their crime but they do in fact suffer for it in a hell of their own making.
Not to look a free ebook in the mouth, but I know just enough French to be curious about some of the translation choices made here, to the point I actually pulled up a French version of the text online and occasionally cross-referenced. For whatever reason, the translator (Edward Vizetelly, 1901) chose to translate le père Laurent as "daddy Laurent", which is... certainly a choice! At another point, the translation refers to "some tarts from the Latin Quarter," and I was curious to see whether I should be more annoyed with Zola or the translator for that one: the original French was des filles du quartier latin, and I can see the thought process here— the context is about the women "playing like little children", contrasting their "virgin-like blushes" and "impure eyes", so I get the idea of emphasizing the irony/contrast— but... hmm. I was going to be more annoyed if the translator had decided to translate grisette as "tart."
( footnotes )
This made me think of Poe's horror and of the English and Irish "urban gothic" of the 1880s-90s (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula) and was in fact published almost exactly halfway between the two, which might be an "I've connected the two dots" situation? It is in many ways classically gothic, just set in downtown Paris rather than in some isolated castle: the opening description of the gloomy arcade where the Raquins keep their shop; the pseudo-incest* of Thérèse growing up as the foster sister of her first husband, literally sleeping in the same bed as children and being groomed to be his wife; the heavy foreshadowing of Camille's death via a clumsily painted portrait (by Laurent!) that gave him the greenish visage of a person who had met death by drowning; horribly lurid descriptions of corpses as Laurent visits the morgue every day to see whether Camille's body has been recovered yet; the HALLUCINATED CORPSE of Thérèse's dead husband LYING BETWEEN her and Laurent EVERY NIGHT; the repeated imagery/analogy of being buried alive, from Thérèse's unhappiness in both marriages to Madame Raquin, who learns of their crime but only after she becomes paralyzed and mute and literally can't tell anyone. There's also something vampire-adjacent in the detail that, as Laurent strangles and then drowns Camille, Camille bites him on the neck, and the wound/scar remains physically and psychologically irritating.
I was also struck by the Munchausen by proxy implications of Thérèse's backstory— I was brought up in the tepid damp room of an invalid. I slept in the same bed as Camille. . . . He would not take his physic unless I shared it with him. To please my aunt I was obliged to swallow a dose of every drug. Also, literally every character is selfish and manipulative: after the murder, Thérèse and Laurent basically gaslight everyone in their circle into convincing them (Thérèse and Laurent) to get married on the grounds that it would make life so much more comfortable for the rest of them (everyone else). (I did ultimately feel terrible for Madame Raquin, per the above, but before that, she was also a piece of work.) So, yeah, there's SO MUCH going on here, most of it psychological horror. At a certain point— Thérèse using her paralyzed, mute, completely helpless aunt/mother-in-law as a constant sounding board for how she's soooooo sorry she helped to kill this woman's son (narrator's voice: she was not, in fact, sorry) but she (Madame Raquin) forgives her (Thérèse), right???— I felt actively gross just reading it, and then Thérèse and Laurent continued to be so relentlessly awful that I looped back around to horrified fascination, and then I honestly laughed out loud when they each decide to kill the other at the same time. Like, she literally whips around with a knife to find him pouring poison into her glass. Come on, guys. To paraphrase
osprey_archer's review, they may not ""repent"" of their crime but they do in fact suffer for it in a hell of their own making.Not to look a free ebook in the mouth, but I know just enough French to be curious about some of the translation choices made here, to the point I actually pulled up a French version of the text online and occasionally cross-referenced. For whatever reason, the translator (Edward Vizetelly, 1901) chose to translate le père Laurent as "daddy Laurent", which is... certainly a choice! At another point, the translation refers to "some tarts from the Latin Quarter," and I was curious to see whether I should be more annoyed with Zola or the translator for that one: the original French was des filles du quartier latin, and I can see the thought process here— the context is about the women "playing like little children", contrasting their "virgin-like blushes" and "impure eyes", so I get the idea of emphasizing the irony/contrast— but... hmm. I was going to be more annoyed if the translator had decided to translate grisette as "tart."
( footnotes )
Interview With The Vampire community
Jan. 23rd, 2026 10:14 amgoodbyebird posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
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intw_amc is the community for all things Interview With The Vampire on AMC. Come share your squee, theories, recs, and fanworks!I was reading a story in which a young character gets a new pair of glasses
Jan. 28th, 2026 02:13 amconulyIf you're actually writing for children, especially young children, then I guess you don't want to scare them off - but if you're writing for adolescents or adults you can afford to be honest.
So here's the thing. Every book or story in which a character gets glasses for the first time - or the second if their first pair is painfully out of date - emphasizes how clear everything is and how they can see so much detail that they had no idea they were missing. And yes, that's a thing. None of them point out that it's a thing that can be less "wondrous" and more "disorienting and distracting" until you've gotten used to seeing that much detail.
None of them mention that if your prescription is strong enough - especially if there's astigmatism involved - your perception will be wonky and you'll have a hard time judging how close and far things are for a day or two.
Definitely none of them mention that you will absolutely get eye strain every time you get a new prescription, and possibly headaches or nausea to accompany it. It goes away, again, in a day or two, but until it does you'll feel like you're cross-eyed at all times. (And with children, every year is a new prescription. They grow, which means their eyeballs grow, and just like that growth is unlikely to suddenly give them perfect vision if they already were nearsighted, it's also unlikely to keep them exactly where they were before.)
Absolutely none of them point out that if you've never worn glasses before you'll have to spend the aforementioned day or two learning how to not see the frames. This is also true if your old frames were much bigger than the new ones, but that, at least, is less likely to apply to children - their faces grow along with the rest of them, necessitating larger frames, so even if they choose a smaller overall style with the new pair the fact that it fits properly may even out.
Moving past the realm of accurate fiction writing, children really should have their first optometrist appointment, at the latest, in the summer before first grade (so, aged 5 or 6 years old). Ideally, they'll have it before they start school, at age 2 or 3, but you can't convince people on that point. They should have a new appointment every year until the age of 20 or so, or every two years if every year really is unfeasible, even if you don't think you see the signs of poor vision. They won't complain that they can't see, because they'll just assume that their vision is normal. This is true even if they wear glasses - you never notice how bad your eyes have gotten until you get a new prescription, and then it's like "whoa".
The screening done at school or at the doctor's office is imperfect at best. You really want the optometrist.
*******************
( Read more... )
So here's the thing. Every book or story in which a character gets glasses for the first time - or the second if their first pair is painfully out of date - emphasizes how clear everything is and how they can see so much detail that they had no idea they were missing. And yes, that's a thing. None of them point out that it's a thing that can be less "wondrous" and more "disorienting and distracting" until you've gotten used to seeing that much detail.
None of them mention that if your prescription is strong enough - especially if there's astigmatism involved - your perception will be wonky and you'll have a hard time judging how close and far things are for a day or two.
Definitely none of them mention that you will absolutely get eye strain every time you get a new prescription, and possibly headaches or nausea to accompany it. It goes away, again, in a day or two, but until it does you'll feel like you're cross-eyed at all times. (And with children, every year is a new prescription. They grow, which means their eyeballs grow, and just like that growth is unlikely to suddenly give them perfect vision if they already were nearsighted, it's also unlikely to keep them exactly where they were before.)
Absolutely none of them point out that if you've never worn glasses before you'll have to spend the aforementioned day or two learning how to not see the frames. This is also true if your old frames were much bigger than the new ones, but that, at least, is less likely to apply to children - their faces grow along with the rest of them, necessitating larger frames, so even if they choose a smaller overall style with the new pair the fact that it fits properly may even out.
Moving past the realm of accurate fiction writing, children really should have their first optometrist appointment, at the latest, in the summer before first grade (so, aged 5 or 6 years old). Ideally, they'll have it before they start school, at age 2 or 3, but you can't convince people on that point. They should have a new appointment every year until the age of 20 or so, or every two years if every year really is unfeasible, even if you don't think you see the signs of poor vision. They won't complain that they can't see, because they'll just assume that their vision is normal. This is true even if they wear glasses - you never notice how bad your eyes have gotten until you get a new prescription, and then it's like "whoa".
The screening done at school or at the doctor's office is imperfect at best. You really want the optometrist.
( Read more... )
talking meme month? talking meme month! (and trivia)
Jan. 22nd, 2026 10:32 pmhafniaStealing an idea from a couple of other people, since February is the shortest month, let's do it. Talking meme! Prompt me on p much anything and I will write a post about it.
Topics that are fair game: books, writing (feel free to ask about specific projects), cooking and baking (specific recipes, favorite things to make, bucket list things to cook), tabletop RPGs (both GMing/DMing as well as designing, D&D as well as GMless or other systems), video games, fiber arts, tarot...
I mean honestly pretty much anything is fair game — if there's something you want my opinion on, I will probably give it! If it's private I may Politely Decline, but outside of stuff I really don't expect people to ask about, I think it unlikely? So.
Dates beneath the jump; I'll fill them in as people ask. I don't expect that I'll fill all 28 days, but how cool if we did? :P
Go ahead, ask me anything!
( Dates! )
In other news: tonight was trivia! Our team came in second, so that was fun. Knowing how to calculate the volume of a sphere came in clutch. Max helped us clinch 2nd with his love of dumb word games, and my friend's knowledge of manga helped us too. Very good overall; got a $10 gift certificate to a local coffee place, which we all magnanimously agreed could go to Maximo, because none of the rest of us really do coffee.
(Like — I do sometimes, but am becoming increasingly aware just what caffeine does to my anxiety levels, so I have mostly switched to tea, and everyone is happier. :P )
Other-other news would be, I made the puff pastry pizza and it was REALLY GOOD. Definitely doing it again! Maximo requested pepperoni with pepperoncini next go-round; might do that for him and do mushroom and onion for me. Very good stuff overall, though, 10/10, love King Arthur's recipes. :D
Topics that are fair game: books, writing (feel free to ask about specific projects), cooking and baking (specific recipes, favorite things to make, bucket list things to cook), tabletop RPGs (both GMing/DMing as well as designing, D&D as well as GMless or other systems), video games, fiber arts, tarot...
I mean honestly pretty much anything is fair game — if there's something you want my opinion on, I will probably give it! If it's private I may Politely Decline, but outside of stuff I really don't expect people to ask about, I think it unlikely? So.
Dates beneath the jump; I'll fill them in as people ask. I don't expect that I'll fill all 28 days, but how cool if we did? :P
Go ahead, ask me anything!
( Dates! )
In other news: tonight was trivia! Our team came in second, so that was fun. Knowing how to calculate the volume of a sphere came in clutch. Max helped us clinch 2nd with his love of dumb word games, and my friend's knowledge of manga helped us too. Very good overall; got a $10 gift certificate to a local coffee place, which we all magnanimously agreed could go to Maximo, because none of the rest of us really do coffee.
(Like — I do sometimes, but am becoming increasingly aware just what caffeine does to my anxiety levels, so I have mostly switched to tea, and everyone is happier. :P )
Other-other news would be, I made the puff pastry pizza and it was REALLY GOOD. Definitely doing it again! Maximo requested pepperoni with pepperoncini next go-round; might do that for him and do mushroom and onion for me. Very good stuff overall, though, 10/10, love King Arthur's recipes. :D
Things
Jan. 23rd, 2026 03:29 pmvassBooks
Nearly finished Evelyn Araluen's 2025 poetry book The Rot. It's very good. I keep thinking of people I know who would appreciate it, and wanting to shove the book at them and say "here, look". (sovay, you're one of them.) Depression, colonialism, girlhood, death, hauntology, Country, survival.
Listened to Margaret Killjoy's narration of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Cup of Tea'. Margaret gave a little context about the story afterwards, including that the main character was thought to be based on Mansfield's cousin, also a writer, whom Margaret herself hadn't heard of. I looked her up afterwards: Elizabeth von Arnim, and went WHUT, Elizabeth and her German Garden? I haven't actually read it, and am not sure how I knew about it, just that it was on my radar. Mansfield's story is simultaneously scalpel-sharp and more merciful than it might have been: the story doesn't attempt to puncture the protagonist's saviour fantasy, or allow it to go as wrong as it could have done, but does make clear in every detail how entirely it is a self-serving saviour fantasy, how entirely she's disregarding the needs, safety, boundaries, and basic consent of the woman she's trying to help. (I thought of the scene in chapter 6 of What Katy Did in which Katy and Clover kidnap an Irish child from her parents and lock her in their attic because they want to "adopt" her.)
Went to the library and borrowed the second Asterix book, having not really given Asterix a chance since I was too young to have any historical context (plus the only one we had in the house was missing several pages, possibly by my own actions at a far younger age.)
Comics
Really feeling for Dina in Dumbing of Age right now. The part about her and Becky is sad and believable, but the part that hit me right where I live was "now even my room is not my own. It's been... ransacked. Strangers have touched... everything." Same fucking autism. I would be out of my fucking mind.
Fandom
Working on my claim for Fanoa'ary, the next Lays server event.
Games
Redactle and Squardle withkaberett, cryptic crosswords with shehasathree.
Little puzzle games on my phone: Breakout 71 (breakout with many possible upgrades to unblock, with a lot of flexibility in possible builds) and Tessel, a tile game in which one rotates multicoloured tiles to match the colours, creating enclosed areas of a single colour. I tend to get way too engrossed in this kind of game and spend too long on it, so I like very much that neither of these two are gamified beyond "actually being a game": no ads, no freemium, no nudging to play at a particular time or for a particular length of time. They're very pausible.
Tech
No progress on desktop problems yet: I'm working on paying down some technical debt on my phones before I try more intensive desktop troubleshooting. In the meantime, no Hollow Knight for me.
Crafts
Finished framing/backing a cross-stitched item which I had intended to givebookgirlwa for her birthday in 2025. Now to wrap it up and send it to her.
No weaving progress yet.
Garden
Two ripe tomatoes (pear-shaped, cherry form factor.)
Cats
Suspicious scab on Ash's nose seems to be healing up okay. *touch wood*
Nature
After a week of more moderate summer weather, we're heading into another heat wave. I hate hot weather, and physically don't deal well with it, but my biggest concern here is fire. Some of the fires from the last heatwave are still burning. The politicians are fighting about the CFA's funding (and yeah, they've been underfunded for a long time and have ageing equipment and an ageing volunteer force, and due to the governments' (plural but including ours) inaction on climate change, the fires they're fighting are getting more numerous and more severe) and there's a distinct scent of manufactured grassroots blame for the Labor state government (and. Like. I don't like Jacinta Allan either! Her authoritarian leanings concern me. But that doesn't mean the opposition would be better, or that a lot of her critics aren't misogynistic or conspiracy-theorists in distinctly Sky News flavours.) Which political digression I find easier to think (grumble) about than the fires themselves. The people and animals harmed already, the likelihood of more and worse in the next week. (And also, personally: the stress of managing my own potential evacuation in a situation where the danger zone is all over the state, my brain's in a constant loop of "but other people have it worse" and it's too hot to think.)
Current Events
It's bad. It's all so bad.
Nearly finished Evelyn Araluen's 2025 poetry book The Rot. It's very good. I keep thinking of people I know who would appreciate it, and wanting to shove the book at them and say "here, look". (
sovay, you're one of them.) Depression, colonialism, girlhood, death, hauntology, Country, survival.Listened to Margaret Killjoy's narration of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Cup of Tea'. Margaret gave a little context about the story afterwards, including that the main character was thought to be based on Mansfield's cousin, also a writer, whom Margaret herself hadn't heard of. I looked her up afterwards: Elizabeth von Arnim, and went WHUT, Elizabeth and her German Garden? I haven't actually read it, and am not sure how I knew about it, just that it was on my radar. Mansfield's story is simultaneously scalpel-sharp and more merciful than it might have been: the story doesn't attempt to puncture the protagonist's saviour fantasy, or allow it to go as wrong as it could have done, but does make clear in every detail how entirely it is a self-serving saviour fantasy, how entirely she's disregarding the needs, safety, boundaries, and basic consent of the woman she's trying to help. (I thought of the scene in chapter 6 of What Katy Did in which Katy and Clover kidnap an Irish child from her parents and lock her in their attic because they want to "adopt" her.)
Went to the library and borrowed the second Asterix book, having not really given Asterix a chance since I was too young to have any historical context (plus the only one we had in the house was missing several pages, possibly by my own actions at a far younger age.)
Comics
Really feeling for Dina in Dumbing of Age right now. The part about her and Becky is sad and believable, but the part that hit me right where I live was "now even my room is not my own. It's been... ransacked. Strangers have touched... everything." Same fucking autism. I would be out of my fucking mind.
Fandom
Working on my claim for Fanoa'ary, the next Lays server event.
Games
Redactle and Squardle with
kaberett, cryptic crosswords with shehasathree.Little puzzle games on my phone: Breakout 71 (breakout with many possible upgrades to unblock, with a lot of flexibility in possible builds) and Tessel, a tile game in which one rotates multicoloured tiles to match the colours, creating enclosed areas of a single colour. I tend to get way too engrossed in this kind of game and spend too long on it, so I like very much that neither of these two are gamified beyond "actually being a game": no ads, no freemium, no nudging to play at a particular time or for a particular length of time. They're very pausible.
Tech
No progress on desktop problems yet: I'm working on paying down some technical debt on my phones before I try more intensive desktop troubleshooting. In the meantime, no Hollow Knight for me.
Crafts
Finished framing/backing a cross-stitched item which I had intended to give
bookgirlwa for her birthday in 2025. Now to wrap it up and send it to her.No weaving progress yet.
Garden
Two ripe tomatoes (pear-shaped, cherry form factor.)
Cats
Suspicious scab on Ash's nose seems to be healing up okay. *touch wood*
Nature
After a week of more moderate summer weather, we're heading into another heat wave. I hate hot weather, and physically don't deal well with it, but my biggest concern here is fire. Some of the fires from the last heatwave are still burning. The politicians are fighting about the CFA's funding (and yeah, they've been underfunded for a long time and have ageing equipment and an ageing volunteer force, and due to the governments' (plural but including ours) inaction on climate change, the fires they're fighting are getting more numerous and more severe) and there's a distinct scent of manufactured grassroots blame for the Labor state government (and. Like. I don't like Jacinta Allan either! Her authoritarian leanings concern me. But that doesn't mean the opposition would be better, or that a lot of her critics aren't misogynistic or conspiracy-theorists in distinctly Sky News flavours.) Which political digression I find easier to think (grumble) about than the fires themselves. The people and animals harmed already, the likelihood of more and worse in the next week. (And also, personally: the stress of managing my own potential evacuation in a situation where the danger zone is all over the state, my brain's in a constant loop of "but other people have it worse" and it's too hot to think.)
Current Events
It's bad. It's all so bad.
Thursday Recs
Jan. 22nd, 2026 09:37 pmsoc_puppet posting in queerly_belovedRolling on track with more Thursday Recs!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
WiP / Plot Bunny Corral
Jan. 22nd, 2026 09:20 pmsenmut~ Dreams of Her Own - https://archiveofourown.org/works/71432751 - Sequel prompts from ukiacatdragon - Eilistraee, the shroud of Lolth, Corellon, Arvandor's overwhleming goodness, plotting to nullify Lolth's plots via Sharr, the raid being brought up, Tall Ones finding Ellifain early, closure for drow and elf child, quest - 1,027 words
~ HLH shortcuts sequel - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74116516 - Joe and Rachel meet in Seacouver - 0 words
~10trueloves - 3/10 written
~genprompt_bingo 0/5 written (Line Only)
GenPrompt Fills:
~ A Moment of Understanding / Clarity - Commander Appo comes face to face with Atin (includes a horrific flashback to Ashla's death from Appo's POV)
~ Teenagers - Continue https://archiveofourown.org/works/12124011 - Rex and Ahsoka with Hera and Chopper
~ Telepathy - Long Distance Phone Calls in the Force: "You left me/He wanted me dead/I would have protected you/But could you really" / "It hurts/You always hurt, couldn't he get you better healing/There wasn't much of me left/He all but owns a master cloning world and you're stuck like that? Your benefits package sucks"
~ Freestyle Crossovers - Jurassic Park/X-Men crossover (late request for More Joy Day)
~ A Test of Worthiness - OPEN
~ Ahsoka the Daughter whispering guidance through time in Anakin's head. Starting inAotC TPM. Includes:
Okay no wonder some said I was just like you (her reaction to the reckless deal in TPM)
Hey Skykid, what's a guy with all the power thinking to make a point of having time for you? (Comics of the Padawan years)
Oh kriff he's so young (first meeting of Anakin and Rex)
I am SO shiny (Ahsoka arriving)
~ Fulcrum and Rex time travel to before Anakin runs to Mace.
~ Fulcrum accidentally pulls Anakin to Malachor in That Fight.
ukiacatdragon - Eilistraee, the shroud of Lolth, Corellon, Arvandor's overwhleming goodness, plotting to nullify Lolth's plots via Sharr, the raid being brought up, Tall Ones finding Ellifain early, closure for drow and elf child, quest - 1,027 words~ HLH shortcuts sequel - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74116516 - Joe and Rachel meet in Seacouver - 0 words
~
10trueloves - 3/10 written ~
genprompt_bingo 0/5 written (Line Only)Random Plot Bunnies to Hold Over
GenPrompt Fills:
~ A Moment of Understanding / Clarity - Commander Appo comes face to face with Atin (includes a horrific flashback to Ashla's death from Appo's POV)
~ Teenagers - Continue https://archiveofourown.org/works/12124011 - Rex and Ahsoka with Hera and Chopper
~ Telepathy - Long Distance Phone Calls in the Force: "You left me/He wanted me dead/I would have protected you/But could you really" / "It hurts/You always hurt, couldn't he get you better healing/There wasn't much of me left/He all but owns a master cloning world and you're stuck like that? Your benefits package sucks"
~ Freestyle Crossovers - Jurassic Park/X-Men crossover (late request for More Joy Day)
~ A Test of Worthiness - OPEN
~ Ahsoka the Daughter whispering guidance through time in Anakin's head. Starting in
Okay no wonder some said I was just like you (her reaction to the reckless deal in TPM)
Hey Skykid, what's a guy with all the power thinking to make a point of having time for you? (Comics of the Padawan years)
Oh kriff he's so young (first meeting of Anakin and Rex)
I am SO shiny (Ahsoka arriving)
~ Fulcrum and Rex time travel to before Anakin runs to Mace.
~ Fulcrum accidentally pulls Anakin to Malachor in That Fight.
10trueloves: Surprise
Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:38 pmsenmutAO3 Link | Shelter in Danger (500 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General), Marvel Comics (General)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Erik Lensherr
Characters: Dinah Lance, Erik Lehnsherr
Additional Tags: Crossover, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:
When Dinah Lance found herself catapulted into another dimension, it wasn't all that shocking. She's been tossed through time, sent to other worlds, and even touched alternate versions of her own world. To wake up in a world that was completely unlike her own as far as people and problems went, but still an Earth wasn't that hard to come to terms with.
No, the thing that shocked her was finding an older white-haired man with a harder sense of justice than she usually took for herself that stirred her emotions so strongly. Similarities to another man of her own world may have set the stage for growing closer, but it was Erik's ability to debate with her, to see her as a capable fighter in her own right, and his old-fashioned manners that sealed her doom.
There was just something irresistible in a man that opened doors for her but didn't think she needed to be in the kitchen for Dinah Lance.
She'd given her word that she would help defend this small island refuge. She wanted no part of his retaliatory strikes, but the people who were just trying to live their lives were under her protection. As Erik — Magneto currently — was deflecting the heavy artillery back into the attackers, Black Canary was ably working defense against the ground assault with his other combatants.
She had no idea how many amphibious vehicles she grounded permanently, how many people in deep-water gear were shoved back off the beach, but eventually Magneto gathered up all of the remaining debris from the assault and threw it out to join the artificial reef off his coastline. While he did that, she acquired one of her protein-gels, slaking a need for energy and liquid at once before seeing if she needed to help with injured.
Magneto landed beside her moments later, his hand going to the small of her back. She wasn't thinking about the likely human cost of the assault; mutants were feared and hunted here, and that force had come with the intent to kill or enslave from all she had managed to dig up.
"Your voice, my dear, is devastating. And yet you espouse more peaceful notions than I," he said with grim satisfaction over the results she'd gotten.
"I learned to modulate it over the years, so I get the effect I want," she said, shifting just slightly closer, her voice dipping into flirting tones.
"Hmm, and what effect do you wish now?" he asked, matching her tone, as that strong hand on her lower back shifted more to her hip and upper ass.
"The ability to be somewhere private and less clothed, of course," she told him.
He laughed, deep and throaty. "Oh, I like that direct approach." He guided her toward his own room, leaving the aftermath to his lieutenants. Dinah was more than happy with that choice, hoping if she distracted him long enough, he'd choose some other way than direct assault on the attacking nation.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General), Marvel Comics (General)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Erik Lensherr
Characters: Dinah Lance, Erik Lehnsherr
Additional Tags: Crossover, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:
While trapped in a different universe, Dinah falls for another older man
Shelter in Danger
When Dinah Lance found herself catapulted into another dimension, it wasn't all that shocking. She's been tossed through time, sent to other worlds, and even touched alternate versions of her own world. To wake up in a world that was completely unlike her own as far as people and problems went, but still an Earth wasn't that hard to come to terms with.
No, the thing that shocked her was finding an older white-haired man with a harder sense of justice than she usually took for herself that stirred her emotions so strongly. Similarities to another man of her own world may have set the stage for growing closer, but it was Erik's ability to debate with her, to see her as a capable fighter in her own right, and his old-fashioned manners that sealed her doom.
There was just something irresistible in a man that opened doors for her but didn't think she needed to be in the kitchen for Dinah Lance.
She'd given her word that she would help defend this small island refuge. She wanted no part of his retaliatory strikes, but the people who were just trying to live their lives were under her protection. As Erik — Magneto currently — was deflecting the heavy artillery back into the attackers, Black Canary was ably working defense against the ground assault with his other combatants.
She had no idea how many amphibious vehicles she grounded permanently, how many people in deep-water gear were shoved back off the beach, but eventually Magneto gathered up all of the remaining debris from the assault and threw it out to join the artificial reef off his coastline. While he did that, she acquired one of her protein-gels, slaking a need for energy and liquid at once before seeing if she needed to help with injured.
Magneto landed beside her moments later, his hand going to the small of her back. She wasn't thinking about the likely human cost of the assault; mutants were feared and hunted here, and that force had come with the intent to kill or enslave from all she had managed to dig up.
"Your voice, my dear, is devastating. And yet you espouse more peaceful notions than I," he said with grim satisfaction over the results she'd gotten.
"I learned to modulate it over the years, so I get the effect I want," she said, shifting just slightly closer, her voice dipping into flirting tones.
"Hmm, and what effect do you wish now?" he asked, matching her tone, as that strong hand on her lower back shifted more to her hip and upper ass.
"The ability to be somewhere private and less clothed, of course," she told him.
He laughed, deep and throaty. "Oh, I like that direct approach." He guided her toward his own room, leaving the aftermath to his lieutenants. Dinah was more than happy with that choice, hoping if she distracted him long enough, he'd choose some other way than direct assault on the attacking nation.
Book review: A Memory Called Empire
Jan. 22nd, 2026 06:04 pmrocky41_7 posting in fffridayI realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent.
For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.
Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.
I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.
If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.
On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.
For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.
Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.
I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.
If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.
On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.
Book review: A Memory Called Empire
Jan. 22nd, 2026 06:03 pmrocky41_7 posting in booknookTitle: A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1)
Author: Arkady Martine
Narrator: Amy Landon
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, fiction
I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent.
For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.
Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.
I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.
If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.
On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.
Author: Arkady Martine
Narrator: Amy Landon
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, fiction
I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent.
For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.
Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.
I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.
If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.
On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.